Hoisting apparatus



y 1951 v. c. FARRELL 2,562,037

HOISI'ING APPARATUS Original Filed June 5, 1945 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 x '2 INVENTOR 6? as 66 Valdemar E-Farr E11 ATTORNEY 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Original Filed June 5, 1945 INVENT OR ATTORNEY Patented July 24,1951

HOISTING APPARATUS Valdemar C. Farrell, West Englewood, N. J

Original application June 5, 1945, Serial No.

597,672. Divided-and this application November 15, 1950, Serial No. 195,884

3 Claims.

This invention relates to hoisting apparatus and more particularly to burtoning gear and especially to the arrangement of the outboard guy or vang therefor.

This application is divided out of application Serial No. 597,672, filed June 5, 1945.

In the prior art burtoning gear, as it is actually used, the outboard guy is anchored to padeyes on the deck, posts or the bulwark at the side of the ship, and the anchorages may range from points spaced fore to aft, below or above the athwartship line passing through the heel of the booms, which constitutes their common horizontal axes around which they are pivoted. In the normal use of the burtoning gear one boom is guyed to a position outboard of the ship and the other boom is guyed to a position over the hatch. In discharging the cargo, a load is picked up in the hold by the load fall of the hatch boom, the load fall of the outboard boom being slack and draped over the hatch coaming. When the load is lifted, the outboard fall is taken up and the inboard fall slacked oil to swing the load outboard to be wholly supported by the outboard fall and the outboard fall is then slacked oil to lower the load to the dock or other discharge point. The operation is reversed in loading.

Now, the difiiculty in operation resides in picking up spotted loads and particularly spotting loads in landing. For instance, the hatch is fairly long, usually about forty feet, and to save manual labor in moving the cargo into the recesses of the hold, it is desired to land the loads of cargo throughout the length of the hatch so that each load will be placed nearest the point of its ultimate stowage. This requires one of two operations, namely, topping up or lowering the boom, or manually swinging the load and trying to drop the load at the end of the swing. The first of these jobs takes considerable time because a gang of men must drop the work they are doing (come up out of the hold or from the dock) and adjust the vangs or outboard guys. In an effort to save this time and labor, it is the usual practice, when possible, to spot the load by swinging it and trying to let it down at the end of its swing. This is also time-consuming but, principally, it is dangerous to the men swinging the load and to the cargo which may be smashed when it is dropped. Swinging of a laterally displaced load when it is picked up is also dangerous. It is also desirable to spot the cargo in loading or landing, as at the dock, by picking it from or putting it on or in railroad cars and at the present time it is necessary to keep an engine on duty to move the cars successively beneath the outboard boom.

Having in mind the defects in' the prior art apparatus, it is an object of this invention to provide a burtoning gear capable of ready and easy adjustment.

It is another object of the invention to provide a burtoning gear which may be adjusted during the burtoning operation thereof.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a burtoning gear wherein the booms may be topped up or lowered without the necessity of adjusting the guying means.

It is a still further object of the invention to provide a burtoning gear having simplicity of organization, economy of construction and emciency in operation.

The foregoing objects and others ancillary thereto are preferably accomplished inaccordance with the present invention in providing a typical commonly employed burtoning gear with anchor points for the outboard guys or vangs thereof on the axis of the heel of the boom, that is, on a common athwartship horizontal line passing through the heel of the respective boom. By this arrangement the boom, vang and athwartship line form the equivalent of a triangle that is pivotal on the side formed by said athwartship line. Consequently, this triangle may be swung about the line-forming side without adjustment of any of the sides of the triangle, and in practical use the boom may be topped or lowered solely by operation of the topping means and without the heretofore necessity of adjusting the vang.

The novel features that are considered characteristic ofthe invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, both as to its organization and its method of operation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, will best be understood from the following description of a specific embodiment when read in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference characters indicate like parts throughout the several figures and in which:

Figure 1 is a plan view of a detailed embodiment of one type of apparatus incorporating the present invention;

Figure 2 is a side view in elevation of the structure shown in Figure 1; and l Figure 3 is a rear view in elevation of the structure shown in Figures 1 and 2.

Referring now to the drawings, a typical ships burtoning gear is shown as comprising a pair of booms Ill and I I mounted on a platform structure or mast table l2 surmounting a housing 35. The booms are respectively supported at their heels for universal movement about both vertical and horizontal axes by clevis members or the like I3 and I4.

Rigged on the booms II), II is a cargo purchase system comprised of a pair of independently actuable load falls 22 and 23. The falls 22 and 23, each preferably consisting of a single wire cable, traverse a pair of head blocks 24 and 25 carried by the booms l8 and H at their respective head ends and lead from the blocks 24 and 25 to a common load supporting member I26, preferably a cargo hook, as shown, to which they are securely anchored in any convenient fashion. The load falls 22 and 23 also extend from the head blocks 24 and 25, respectively, generally lengthwise of the booms l8 and I l to the winding drums 26 and 21, respectively, of a pair of power-driven winches 28 and 29, respectively, carried by the platform structure l2.

Means are provided for topping and lowering the booms l8 and II and this topping means is suitably constructed and arranged so that there will be an equal distribution of stress on the boom heads at all times. As here shown, an embodiment of the invention may comprise a hollow, rigid mast structure 50 which extends vertically upwardly midway of the heels of the booms through the housing 35 and the mast table I2. A pair of sheaves 58 and 59 are located atop the mast, the sheaves being journalled in supporting frames which, preferably, are pivotally mounted in the mast head portion 53 for rotation each on a separate vertical axis so that the sheaves may freely swivel according to the positions of the respective booms. Topping lifts 65 and 66 are separately anchoredat one end to each of the booms l and II respectively at the boom heads and lead therefrom upwardly and inwardly in converging relation to each other to and over the sheaves 59 and 58, respectively, and preferably thence down through an opening 61 in the mast head portion 53 through the mast 58 to suitable power winch means 12 and 13.

A fair lead post 80 is positioned forwardly of the housing 35 substantially midway between the sides of the housing 35 and carries a swivelled fair lead block 8 I. When the rig is used with the booms separated and independently guyed for transferring cargo between a dock 61, for example, and hatch 84, and the boom II is lowered out over the dock 81, the load fall 23 (assuming the vessel to be tied up with its starboard side to the dock 81 as shown in Figure 1) may be disconnected from the winch drum 2'! and led over the fair-lead block 8| through an opening 82 (Figures 2 and 3) in the housing 35 to winding drum 83 on the winch 33. The other load fall 22 is left connected to the winding drum 26 of the winch 28 in such case. If the vessel were tied up with its portside to the clock, the load fall 22 would be disconnected from the winding drum 26 and run over the fair lead block 8| to the winding drum 83, the other load fall 23, in such case, being left on the winding drum 21. This use of the fair lead block and winding drum 83 is of advantage in order to avoid the diflicult approach angle which the load fall would have to make with the winding drum 2! or 26 from the boom over the dock.

During operation, it is necessary to guy the booms from both sides, that is inboard and outboard. The inboard guying is usually effected by tieing the booms together by t midship or schooner guy 89, or it preferably may be effected arrangements are shown. The outboard guying is effected by a Vang or outboard guy extending from each boom to a point outboard of the boom. In the present instance, a set of vangs 85 and 86 is rigged to the booms in order to guy them independently and to flx the booms in operative position. For burtoning operation, one boom, boom H for example (which will be referred to as the outboard boom), is rigged to extend outwardly at a suitable angle over the dock 81 (assuming the vessel is tied up with the dock on its starboard side), to which position it is adapted to be turned by reason of the universal mounting provided by the journalled clevis I4, and the other boom In (which will be referred to as the inboard boom) is positioned over the hatch, as is depicted in the figures. It is desirable to top up and lower the booms to spot the loads, particularly the inboard boom In so that it can be lowered to land a load in the forward end of the hatch 84 and topped up (raised) to land a load in the after end of the hatch and, consequently. two gangs can be worked with one rig.

According to the present invention, the booms may be adjusted without ditficulty by securing the bottom end of the outboard guy or vang ll of the inboard boom ID at an anchor point 88 on the athwartship axis or line X--X of the heel or bottom end of the boom and the vang or outboard guy 85 to the anchor point also on said axis. When this is done, the topping and lowering of the booms will not change the angles between the boom, said athwartship axis and the outboard guys respectively, and the guy, therefore, will not have to be tightened or slackened. Therefore, when a boom is topped or lowered, it and the guy unitarily revolve about the said axis, regardless of the angle between the boom and its axis; and the boom head, or its load fall connection, moves directly fore and aft, that is through an arc that lies in a plane which is perpendicular to said axis. The angle of the midship guy 89, when it is connected between the two booms, is such that the lowering and topping of a boom will not cause any appreciable tightening or slackening.

Moreover, since normally only the boom III, in such case, is to' be topped up or lowered to haul cargo at different locations longitudinally of the hatch and hold, the anchorage point of the bottom end of the outboard guy is not critical so long as the outboard boom H is to be held to its selected position over the dock 81. However, since the ship may be tied up with either its starboard side or its port side to the dock, and since, in the latter case, the boom ll would be over the hatch, or if the outboard boom is handling cargo in railway cars or the like spaced along the dock, the guy 85 is preferably also anchored to a point 98 on a common horizontal hinge axis X-X of the booms so that it may also be moved straight fore and aft without adjusting the guy 85.

In operation, the booms are rigged in the usual manner for burtoning cargo. The burtoning operation is usually employed for transferring cargo between the ship, normally the hold, and the dock, and the operation of the apparatus will be described as for this purpose and as as suming that the ship is tied up with its starboard side toward the dock, as illustrated in Fig. 1. In these circumstances, it is necessary to guy the starboard boom II to an outboard position beby running the topping lifts inboard, and both 75 yond the side of the ship and overlying the dock 81, and to guy the port boom ID to an inboard position, normally overlying the hatch 84.

When not in use, as during the ships voyage, the booms are stored as by resting in cradles on deck or by being lashed to the mast structure. Accordingly, it is necessary to guy them into operative position and this is done by operating the guys and topping lifts. Heretofore, the booms have always required two guys as well as the topping lift, an inboard guy in addition to the outboard vang. The inboard guy may comprise the midship or schooner guy 89 or an inboard vang.

According to the present'invention, however, the necessity of the inboard guy is eliminated by the running of the topping lifts 85 and 88 to points inboard of the positions of the boom heels so that the topping lifts guy the booms inboard as well as raising and lowering them. Thus, to guy the booms in position, it is only necessary to operate the topping lifts 65 and 66 while adjusting the vangs 85 and 86 to swing the booms into position. Thereafter, it is only necessary to adjust the topping lifts to swing the booms about the axis XX so that the boom heads move directly fore and aft to spot the cargo longitudinally of the hatch 84, the ships deck or the dock 81. a

In some instances it may be desirable to reinforce or relieve some of the stress on the topping lifts, due to the weight of the cargo or the like, in which event the boom heads may be connected by the midship or schooner guy 89. The angle of the midship guy 89 relative to the booms l8 and II is such that topping or lowering of the booms will not cause sufiicient tightening or slackening to materially aifect the desired movement of the booms. In contrast, the prior inboard vangs would inhibit movement of the booms unless they too were adjusted along with the topping lifts.

Presuming that the booms are carried in cradles on deck, to guy them into operative position it is only necessary to haul on the topping lifts to raise them from the cradles. Then to adjust the boom II to outboard position, the vang 85 is hauled in to swing the boom outwardly against the inboard pull of the topping lift 58, the topping lift being hauled or slackened to top or lower the boom to the desired elevation. When the boom II is in position the vang 85 is then secured to its anchorage 90, the topping lift 65 being anchored by its winch 13.

Similar operations are effected with the boom 18 except that this boom will be topped by the lift 65 to a higher elevation than the boom H, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. Thus, the vang 86 is slacked off to accommodate the inboard pulling and topping of the boom ID by the lift 85 to position the boom over the hatch 84. It will be understood that the boom in can be positioned over any part of the hatch 84, the inboard pull of the topping lift 65 being suflicient to swing the boom to the starboard side of the hatch or beyond to the limit of starboard movement imposed by obstacles on deck.

With the booms l0 and H guyed into operative position, the burtoning operations may then be effected. Assuming that the ship is taking on cargo from the dock 81, the cargo falls 22 and 23 are operated to move the cargo hook I28 outboard So that it is suspended by the falls 23 from the boom II and then lowered to the dock 81.

the tall 28 stacked oil, to transfer the cargo from the outboard boom H to the hatch boom II, until the cargo issupported solely by the fall 22 and, hatch boom l8 and the fall 28 is completely slack.

During these operations, the booms normally remain stationary, being retained by the outboard stress of the vangs 85 and I6 and the inboard and upward stress of the topping lifts 65 and 88. If; however, the cargo is to be deposited in a. particular spot in the hatchway fore or aft of the previously deposited load, then, as the cargo hook is being transferred outboard and the cargo transferred inboard, the topping lift 85 may be operated to top .or lower the boom Ill soas to spot the load in the hatchway. As the aft and longitudinally of the hatch.

The cargo is attached to the hook I28 and the Similarly, it the outboard boom H is picking up cargo spotted along the dock 81, as from railway cars or -previously disposed loads, it too can be moved fore and aft'mereiy by operation of the topping lift". The vang being anchored at "on the axis X-X will guide the boom through a direct fore and aft movement without the necessity of adjustment-oi the vang. Moreover, as the necessity of an inboard vang is eliminated by the inboard stressof the topping lift, only the topping lift need be adjusted to obtain the fore and aft movement of the boom.

Thus, apparatus incorporating the present invention has. many advantages over the prior art structures. Asthe topping lifts run inboard of the booms, they provide the necessary inboard pull or guying on the-booms and eliminate the necessity of inboard vangs or guys while, nevertheless, leaving the booms free and independent of each other. Furthermore, as the vangs are anchored on the athwaitship line passing through the boom heels, the booms may be topped or lowered without adjustment of the vangs and they will move.,.directly fore and aft. On the other hand, a midship guy can be connected between the booms. when necessary without eifectively impairing the efliciency of operation or the booms.

As previously noted, the load fall 28 of boom II is preferably disconnected from the winding drum 21 and is led over the fair-lead block 8| through the opening, 82, Figure 2, in the housing 35 to the winding drum 88 on the winch 83. This is desirable for the practical reason that the runner of the boom swung out over the dock thus is imparted a much more practical angle of approach to the winding' drum 83 than to the drum 21. Obviously, the same considerations would apply were the boom It the outboard or dock boom.

The abilityto lower and raise the boom or booms quickly and to the horizontal position for maximum reach, will enable loading from or discharging to railroad cars on the third set of rails on railroad piers.

The ability to lift the loads, swing and raise or lower the boom simultaneously, take loads alternately from or to any point in the large area of dock within the long reach of this rig and to land or take loads from any point within the area of the hatch or deck will eliminate several bottlenecks and a lot of builing of cargo which slows up loading and discharging.

Although a certain specific embodiment oi the invention has been shown and described, it is obvious that-many modifications thereof are possible. The invention, therefore, is not to be restricted except in so far as is necessitated by the prior art and by the spirit of the appended claims.

What I claim, as new, is:

1. A cargo burtoning rig for ships, comprising a mast structure for a ship, a pair of cargo booms, means mounting said booms adjacent said mast structure and at their heels for independent universal swinging movement with said boom heels spaced apart on substantially the same athwartship line which is substantially parallel to the base plane of the ship, a load fall carried by each boom, said load falls being interconnected between said booms, means for separately and independently hauling on said load falls for burtoning a load between said booms, separate topping lifts respectively extending inboard from said booms to points on said mast structure that are inboard of the positions of said boom heels, and means for guying said booms outboard and including a vang extending from at least one boom to an anchor point which is spaced outward from the heel of said one boom and is substantially on said athwartship line, whereby said one boom may be topped up or lowered and will be guided by said vang so that the load fall connection with said one boom will travel through a path that lies in a plane which is substantially perpendicular to said athwartship line.

2. A cargo burtoning rig for ships, comprising a mast structure for a ship, a pair of cargo booms, means mounting said booms adjacent said mast structure and at their heels for independent universal swinging movement with said boom heels on substantially the same athwartship line which is substantially parallel to the base plane of the ship, a load fall carried by each boom, said load falls being interconnected between said booms, means for separately and independently hauling on said load falls for burtoning a load between said booms, boom guying means including separate topping lifts respectively extending from said booms to said mast structure, and which means guy said booms upwardly and inwardly, and a vang for each of said booms and respectively guying said booms downwardly and outwardly, the vang for each of said booms extending respectively from said booms to anchor points which are respectively spaced outward from the heels of said booms and are substantially on said athwartship line, whereby said booms may be respectively topped up or lowered and will be guided by said vangs so that the respective load tall connections with said booms will travel through paths that lie in planes which are substantially perpendicular to said athwartship line.

3. A cargo burtoning rig for ships, comprising a mast structure for a ship, a pair of cargo booms, means mounting said booms adjacent said mast structure and at their heels for independent universal swinging movement with said boom heels juxtapositioned relative to each other, a load fall carried by each boom, said load falls being interconnected between said booms, means for separately and independently hauling in said load falls for burtoning a load between said booms, boom suyins means including separate toppin lifts respectively extending from said booms to said mast'structure and which means guy said booms upwardly and inwardly, and a vang for each of said booms and respectively guying said booms downwardly and outwardly, the vang for at least one of said booms extending from said one boom to an anchor point which is spaced outward from the heel of said one boom and is substantially on the same athwartship line with the heel of said one boom, whereby said one boom may be topped up or lowered and will be guided by said vang so that the load iall connection with said one boom will travel through a path that lies in a plane which is substantially perpendicular to said athwartship line.

VALDEMAR C. FARRELL.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,094,005 Miller Apr. 21, 1914 1,182,757 Degerstedt May 9, 1916 2,222,066 Brown Nov. 19, 1940 2,354,182 Christoflersen July 25, 1944 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 354,235 Great Britain Aug. 5, 1931 

